Why Your Business Calls Show Up as 'Spam Likely' — and How to Fix Your Caller ID
Spam Likely labels come from Hiya, First Orion and TNS, not your carrier. Register numbers, earn A attestation and add branded calling to lift answer rates.
#fraud-prevention
Fraud Prevention
Proactive strategies and controls to prevent financial fraud in your business
Benford's Law: The First-Digit Test That Catches Fake Invoices in Your Books
About 30% of real accounting amounts start with the digit 1 — fabricated invoices rarely do. Here's how to run a Benford first-digit test in a spreadsheet.
Counterfeit Bills at the Register: Train Your Cashiers to Catch Fakes Before They Cost You
Counterfeits you accept are your loss — no reimbursement. Train cashiers on feel-look-tilt checks, UV verification, and Secret Service Form 1604 reporting.
Daily Money Manager Bookkeeping: Retainers, Bill-Pay Trust Controls, and the Fiduciary Line
A daily money manager is not a fiduciary until formally appointed — price retainers deliberately, never commingle funds, and log every bill-pay.
AI Deepfakes Now Drive 40% of Business Email Compromise: The AP Controls That Stop a Cloned Voice From Approving a Fake Wire
40% of business email compromise now uses AI deepfakes. Out-of-band callbacks, dual approval, and locked vendor records stop voice-clone wire fraud.
Authorized Push Payment Fraud: The Invoice Scam Your Bank Won't Reverse
Because you authorized the wire, US banks rarely refund APP fraud — $8.3B lost in 2024. Out-of-band vendor verification and dual approval stop it.
Your Refund Never Arrived? How to Trace a Lost, Stolen, or Misdirected IRS Refund With Form 3911
IRS Form 3911 traces a missing refund after 5 days for direct deposit or 4–9 weeks for paper checks; BFS then cancels the original or investigates the forgery.
Mandatory Vacations Catch Fraud: The Two-Week Control That Cuts Your Losses in Half
Organizations with mandatory vacation and job rotation report roughly 50% lower fraud losses — here is how small teams run the control.
Kicked Off Your Merchant Account? The MATCH List, Its Reason Codes, and the Three Paths Off
A MATCH listing follows a terminated merchant for five years and nobody has to tell you. Here are the reason codes, the high-risk cost, and three paths off.
Zelle Tag for Small Business: A Custom Payment Handle Instead of Your Phone Number
Zelle tags passed 1 million enrolled small businesses in 2026, adding ~3,500 per day. Here's how to claim a handle, what bank sending limits apply, and why no 1099-K still means fully taxable income.
Mercury Command: What Happens When You Run Your Business Banking by Talking to It
Mercury Command, launched June 16, 2026, lets founders run business banking in plain English — checking cash, changing transfer rules, categorizing transactions, and sending invoices — with every action staged for explicit human approval. This guide explains what it does, the agent-card spend controls that followed, and the adoption checklist small businesses need before granting AI payment access.
Payment-Approval Limits for a Two-Person Finance Team: A Practical Disbursement Matrix
A ready-to-copy payment-approval matrix for two-person finance teams — who creates, approves, releases, and reconciles each disbursement type, the dollar limits and escalation triggers to set, and the compensating controls that cover what two people cannot segregate.